There are two General Officers Commanding (GOCs) in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State. While the 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, based in Ibadan, has been an active division since the Nigerian civil war, with a current GOC, the other GOC is Mr. Felix Adenaike. As I wrote Adenaike’s name, I was tempted to prefix it with “Chief,” a crime whose punishment, many of those who are close to Adenaike know, is summary anger of the media chief. The Ibadan media GOC was 80 years old on April 22.
Adenaike, one of the surviving grandfathers of Nigerian journalism, was given the sobriquet of GOC on account of his no-nonsense managerial tendencies while he held forte as Daily Sketch’s General Manager/ CEO and Editor-in-Chief and Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Tribune. He was a disciplinarian whose life was discipline personified. He strictly pursued and stuck with the hallowed principles of journalism and couldn’t suffer fools gladly. Anyone who fell prey to his fine tooth-comb with which he scrutinized the newspapers under him for infractions sang the acrid song that Judas sang on his way to Aceldama. He couldn’t stand willful obstruction of the ethics of journalism or chivalrous murder of the god of grammar in the newspapers under his charge.
The next time you meet Adenaike, the first thing you will notice is that he will willfully regale you with the fine days of journalism and the dross on our hands today. He is one of the two surviving members of the tripod, that comprised himself, Peter Ajayi (may God rest his soul) and Segun Osoba, who Chief Obafemi Awolowo named The Three Musketeers, a deference to the trinity of their professionalism.
As Adenaike clocks 80 years on earth, help say eighty hearty cheers to the General Officer Commanding of the Nigerian Media, Ibadan Command.
